AOHC Best Practices definition
Best practices aim to adapt practice in ways that suit the particular issue and context and also to share stories, tools and understanding so that we don't keep reinventing the wheel. Best practices include the incorporation of philosophy and values, guidelines for practice based on evidence, indicators of positive intervention, and processes of staff, volunteer and community involvement (in design, implementation and evaluation).

Yet to come are the further development of case studies and supporting materials, on-going promotion of the use of the IDM, on-going support to the users of the IDM, and research for additional funding to support activities. To learn more about this project, contact Christiane Fontaine, Health Promotion Consultant: phone (416) 408-2249, ext. 229 or 1 800 263-2846; e-mail christiane@opc.on.ca.

This description of the Francophone Best Practices project is excerpted from the report "Best Practices in Health Promotion: The Franco-Ontarian Context" by Christiane Fontaine, Centre ontarien d'information en prévention/Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse, Canada.

Initially, the Work Group focused on understanding the meaning of best practices and identifying the potential benefits and risks of taking a best practices approach to health promotion. Next it developed a set of best practices principles, and conducted an Ontario scan of practitioners' needs and capacities concerning best practices. Pilot testing the IDM and its Framework became a project of a "best practices partnership" consisting of Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC), Ontario Public Health Benchmarking Partnership (OPHB), and Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto (CHP). The partnership also included the three Ontario pilot sites who generously volunteered their time and energy to participate in the pilot testing: Durham Region Health Department, East End Community Health Centre (Toronto), and The Willett Hospital (Paris). Later, the Hospital Health Promotion Network joined the partnership.

As a result of the positive results of the pilot testing, development continued of materials and processes to facilitate practitioners' use of the Framework, including the IDM Evidence Framework. More sites joined the effort, this time to take part in and contribute to the IDM "bridging the gap between research and practice" learning module; these Ontario sites included: Access Alliance Multicultural CHC (Toronto); Brant Community HealthCare System (Paris and Brantford); Peterborough County-City Health Unit; Sudbury and District Health Unit; St. Joseph's Healthcare, Women's Detox and Mary Ellis House Treatment Program (Hamilton); West Hill Community Health Centre (Toronto).

Although the Best Practices Work Group no longer exists, some members are still informally in touch with each other around best practices issues; and despite lack of funding, resources such as this website continue to be developed. Sharing of IDM best practices ideas - at national and international conferences, and through consultations with wonderful groups of people from Nova Scotia, Sweden, Holland and other places - has also continued.

IDM Best Practices activity around the world includes:

Australia (Sydney): Jan Ritchie introduces the Interactive Domain Model in her master's level core course "Health Promotion" at the University of New South Wales. Jan also uses the Model in her health promotion work in Pacific Island countries.

Canada (Regina): Website editor Barbara Kahan continues to develop IDM best practices materials and is a resource for other IDM activities.

Canada (Toronto): in September 2005 Toronto Public Health adopted its Practice Framework. According to the Framework document, "The development of Core Domain 2 - Foundation of Toronto Public Health Practice was inspired and influenced significantly" by the IDM Manual.

Canada (Toronto): Michael Goodstadt teaches a University of Toronto master's level health promotion strategies class which is structured around IDM Best Practices, continues to develop other IDM materials such as his companion best practices website which features the IDM, and is a resource for other IDM activities.

Poland: Dr. Jerzy B. Karski of the Medical University of Warsaw has written a book, in Polish, which includes a section discussing the IDM. The book is Postepy Promocji Zdrowia: Przeglad Miedzynarodowy (Advances in Health Promotion: International Review). To order the book, go to www.cedewu.pl.

United States (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Leade Health is using the IDM as a framework for its best practices approach. For more information, see the white paper Defining Best Practices in Health Coaching: From Competencies to Processes by Catherine Macpherson and Michael Mulvihill. Leade Health delivers health and wellness coaching to individuals enrolled in worksite and health plan programs for weight management, smoking cessation, stress reduction and cardiovascular health. Catherine Macpherson explains that "health coaching utilizes a unique blend of evidence-based behavioural and clinical methods to help individuals change behaviours."

IDM Best Practices definition
Best practices in health promotion are those sets of processes and activities that are consistent with health promotion values, goals and ethics, theories and beliefs, evidence, and understanding of the environment, and that are most likely to achieve health promotion goals in a given situation.

This description of the IDM Best Practices project is excerpted from: the IDM Manual for Best Practices in Health Promotion (Introduction and Basics), and updated by website editor Barbara Kahan.

In January 2002 a consultation workshop was held to provide an opportunity to further investigate into how people were using the N.S. Framework. The purpose was to look for direction on what revisions might need to be made to improve the Framework, what needed to happen to encourage use of the Framework and what additional tools would be useful. We invited members of the Best Practices Working Group of the University of Toronto to share their work with us so that we could learn from their experience and as well learn from the collective experience of the participants present at the Consultation.

Nova Scotia Best Practices
Materials from the Nova Scotia Best Practices initiative include A Framework for A Best Practices Approach to Health Promotion, which presents 15 core components of health promotion, sets of questions for critical reflection, case studies, exercises and activities, lists of additional resources. There is an accompanying brochure which provides an overview of the Framework.

The Heart Health program finished in Nova Scotia, however the Health Promotion Clearinghouse component was sustained by the partner organizations. It is through the Clearinghouse that the materials are still available to practitioners in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Best Practices definition
Best practice is a continual process of reflecting on how to improve a systematic examination of health promotion work and uses a process of critical reflection to draw out our collective knowledge of what we know works well.

This description of the Nova Scotia Best Practices initiative was submitted by: Kari Barkhouse, original member of the Nova Scotia Best Practices Steering Committee, currently Tobacco Strategy Coordinator, South Shore Health, Public Health Services, DHA 1,2,3 (Nova Scotia, Canada).